Eva Jessye was blessed with many talents that helped her become an internationally recognized poet, writer, artist, teacher, actress, performer, composer and choral director.

On January 20, 1895, Eva Jessye was born in Coffeyville, Kansas. Her parents separated when she was three years old. She was sent to live with her grandmothers and aunts while her mother worked in Seattle. She lived with her Aunt May Buckner Knight in Coffeyville. She spent her summers with her Great Aunt Harriet near Caney, Kansas, because her other relatives went to pick cotton in the Indian Territory. After the evening chores were done, her Great Aunt Harriet would sing the most beautiful spirituals to her. Her aunt had an amazing voice that fostered Jessye’s deep appreciation for music.

When she was seven years old, Jessye went to live with her mother in Seattle. It was there that her love of poetry was born from reading poetry magazines given to her by a railroad porter. She tried to copy the styles and wrote her first poem, "To the Virgin Mary." She also wrote a poem, " The Nativity,"when she was only seven years old. Jessye spent a year or two with her Aunt Pauline Walker in Iola, Kansas. She attended the Touissant L’Ouverture School while she lived with her Aunt Laura Denny in St Louis, Missouri.

When Jessye was nine years old, she had a life-changing vision while recovering from typhoid fever at her Great Grandmother Buckner’s home. She said the vision helped her understand that humanity is of higher importance than intellect. Jessye said she kept this awareness all of her life (Little Balkans Review, Summer 1981, Vol. 1, No. 4).

When she was thirteen years old, her mother sent her to Western University in Quindaro, a part of Kansas City, Kansas. The university ignored the minimum enrollment age to admit Jessye a year earlier than normal because African Americans were still barred from attending the public schools in Coffeyville. The university’s music instructor, R. G. Jackson, let Jessye take charge of the University chorus because of her musical abilities.

In 1914, Jessye traveled to Fort Scott, Kansas when she entered the James A. Handy Literary Society contest. At the last minute she changed her category because she felt she couldn’t compete with D. Mae Buxton, an experienced dramatic reader. Buxton won the declamation category and Jessye’s poem, "Negroes Are Bound to Rise," won first prize in a new category, original poetry. In a Little Balkans Review interview with Gladys Mundt, she said, “…I compared our race to a lazy river full of power, but without current. (I was militant even then in my own way).” Jessye studied music theory and choral music at Western University where she earned her degree later the same year. It took her three summers to earn her life certificate in teaching at Langston University.

In 1927, Eva Jessye was in terrible straits. She worked feverishly from her run-down apartment to finish her book. It only took three weeks for her to compile and publish, My Spirituals, her critically acclaimed collection of songs from Southeast Kansas.

In 1935, Jessye became the original choral conductor of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, a new folk opera about Porgy, a crippled black man who lives in Charleston’s slums in South Carolina. Porgy tries to free Bess from her drug-dealing pimp’s grip. Eva Jessye's unique musical insight enhanced the cultural texture of the work. Over the next thirty years, she was involved in almost every worldwide production of the Porgy and Bess opera. She has been dubbed its unofficial curator and guardian.

In 1963, Jessye was involved with the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King, Jr., chose the Eva Jessye Choir as official chorus of the historic March on Washington.

In 1972, Jessye directed her own composition, Paradise Lost and Regained, her original folk oratorio which was hailed by the Washington Post.

In 1974, the Eva Jessye Collection of Afro-American Music was established by Jessye at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 1976, Jessye was awarded a Degree in Determination by the Afro-American Studies Department at the university.

In 1977, the Eva Jessye Collection was established at Pittsburg State University in Kansas. It includes her biographical information, writing, clippings, photographs, programs, recordings, and other information about the singer’s life and career.

In 1984, Dr. Eva Jessye made a profound statement during an interview with Jacob U. Gordon about the drawbacks of being black and elderly in Kansas. She said, "I often think if I had been white, where would I have been? Perhaps not anywhere. Because I think I had it made, you know. Who's that who said he took the path less traveled by? Robert Frost? I took the color less desirable and it made all the difference."
Source: http://library.pittstate.edu/spcoll/ndxjessye.html.

Eva Jessye continued to write throughout her life. According to Randy Roberts, curator of Special Collections at Pittsburg State University’s Axe Library, Eva Jessye had begun writing her autobiography but she had not completed it at the time of her death.

On February 21, 1992, Eva Jessye passed away leaving behind the legacy of her literary wisdom and her sensitivity toward humanity.

My Spirtuals is Eva Jessye’s critically-acclaimed collection of 17 spirituals in dialects sung by the author and others in Southeast Kansas. The book contains original music and block engravings of Afro-American life. She worked feverishly from her uncomfortable apartment to finish her book, which took her three weeks to complete. Jessye was involved in almost every American musical format during her life. She was trained classically in the Midwest. She developed her love of poetry while living with her mother in Seattle. She developed her love of music while spending summers with her Great Aunt Harriet in Caney, Kansas. She became the protégé of jazz composer Will Marion Cook when she moved to New York in 1926. Jessye enjoyed international recognition and influence from the 1930s until her death in 1992.

The Little Balkans Review:A Southeast Kansas Literary and Graphics Quarterly, Summer 1981, Vol. 1, No. 4, features Dr. Eva Jessye's interview with Gladys Mundt, “What’s the Matter with Now?” The article reveals how her love of poetry and music began. It also provides photographs and notes many aspects of her childhood, education and vibrant careers.

"A Bag of Peanuts" is a poem about how easily people settle life's important matter for something as easy as a bag of peanuts. [Page 1] / [Page 2]

The following links provide Jessye's two spiritual writing samples. The first is an ode, "Centennial Ode to African Methodism," that Jessye wrote in 1916. She also wrote"The Nativity" in 1902 when she was only seven years old. The Axe Library at Pittsburg State University also has selected poems that were published by the Little Balkans Press in 1978 available online, including: "Old, Not So Gifted. . .And Black," "The Highway," "The Maestro," "And "If" for Dictators," "Commentary Up-Date," and "The Singer."

Q:In Jacob U. Gordon's interview with Eva Jessye, he asked, "What do you consider to be some of drawbacks to being black and elderly in Kansas?

A: "I often think if I had been white, where would I have been? Perhaps not anywhere. Because I think I had it made, you know. Who's that who said he took the path less traveled by? Robert Frost? I took the color less desirable and it made all the difference."

A: According to Randy Roberts, curator of the Axe Library's Special Collections at Pittsburg State University, Eva Jessye had begun writing her memoirs but she had not completed them at the time of her death.